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Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
WW3 fears grow as ALL phones to blast out 'emergency alarm' in system test
As fears mount over the potential of WW3, the UK will test its emergency alarm system for the first time in two years. All UK devices will blast out an alarm tone later this year in a new test of the 'Emergency Alert System'. First launched in 2023, this system is designed to warn the public if there is a danger to life nearby. This latest test comes as the government's security strategy warns that the UK homeland could come under 'direct threat' in a 'wartime scenario'. The renewed testing of the emergency system also comes at a time when escalating conflict in the Middle East has sparked concerns of a wider war between nuclear powers. When it was first tested, the emergency system sent a message to phones which read: 'Severe Alert. This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby. 'In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe. 'Visit for more information. This is a test. You do not need to take any action.' The Emergency Alert System was designed to quickly inform the public of an impending threat. According to the Government, this could include severe flooding, wildfires, or extreme weather events. Once the alert is sent, all phones in the affected area will make a loud siren-like sound, vibrate, and read out the warning. The sound and vibration will trigger even if your phone is set to silent. The government does not need to know your phone number in order to send the message, and all phones will automatically trigger the alert. The next nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will occur at some point in the coming year. However, the exact date is yet to be announced. After this year's test, the Emergency Alert System will continue to be tested once every two years. Similar systems are already widely used across a number of other countries, primarily for natural disaster preparation. Japan has one of the world's most sophisticated systems, which combines satellite and cell broadcast technology. This system forms part of a wider scheme called J-ALERT that informs the public in case of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, or missile threats. South Korea frequently uses its national cell broadcast system to alert citizens about issues ranging from weather alerts and civil emergencies to local missing persons cases. The US has a similar system to the UK that utilises 'wireless emergency alerts' to send messages that look like texts with a unique sound and vibration pattern. The announcement of the UK's upcoming emergency alert test comes at a time when more people are growing worried about the threat of war. The latest version of the government's defence strategy, published earlier this week, lays out a chilling warning that the UK is no longer safe from military threats. The report states: 'For the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario.' In a foreword to the report, Prime Minister Keir Starmer adds: 'The world has changed. Russian aggression menaces our continent. Strategic competition is intensifying. Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Technology is transforming the nature of both war and domestic security.' At the same time, the world has been carefully watching the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel in the Middle East. After US forces bombed Iran's primary nuclear weapons development facility, the nation's leadership has vowed to strike back if there are further attacks. Amid mounting concerns, a number of European countries have taken measures to improve their citizens' readiness. Earlier this year, the EU issued advice to its nearly 450 million residents to stockpile emergency supplies to last 72 hours. The warning told people across 27 countries to build up a store of bottled water, energy bars, torches, and waterproof pouches for IDs. Citizens could also access a handbook to help prepare against 'various crises, from potential conflict to climate disasters, pandemics and cyber threats.' Likewise, the French government released a 20-page survival manual detailing how to protect yourself during armed conflict, natural disasters, and industrial accidents such as nuclear leaks. What is the Doomsday clock and what does it mean? What is the Doomsday Clock? The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists. It was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II. In 1947, they established the clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war. The Doomsday Clock not only takes into account the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon but also other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. It is symbolic and represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe. The decision to move, or leave the clock alone, is made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in consultation with the bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 16 Nobel laureates. The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences. In 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an expert group formed in 1945, adjusted the Doomsday Clock 100 seconds to midnight, the closest we've ever come to total destruction - and it remained there in 2021. That sent a message that the Earth was closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing and 1984, when US-Soviet relations reached 'their iciest point in decades.' The Bulletin also considered world leaders response to the coronavirus pandemic, feeling it was so poor that the clock needed to remain in its perilously close to midnight position. The closer to midnight the clock moves the closer to annihilation humanity is. How has the clock changed since 1947? 1947 - 48: 7 minutes 1949 - 52: 3 minutes 1953 - 59: 2 minutes 1960 - 62: 7 minutes 1963 - 67: 12 minutes 1968: 7 minutes 1969 - 71: 10 minutes 1972 - 73: 12 minutes 1974 - 79: 9 minutes 1980: 7 minutes 1981 - 83: 4 minutes 1984 - 87: 3 minutes 1988 - 89: 6 minutes 1990: 10 minutes 1991 - 94: 17 minutes 1995 - 97: 14 minutes 1998 - 2001: 9 minutes 2002 - 06: 7 minutes 2007 - 09: 5 minutes 2010 - 11: 6 minutes 2012 - 14: 5 minutes 2015 - 16: 3 minutes 2017 - 2.5 minutes 2018 - 2 minutes 2019 - 2 minutes 2020 - 100 seconds 2021 - 100 seconds 2022 - 100 seconds 2023 - 90 seconds 2024 - 90 seconds
Japan Times
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
World faces new nuclear arms race, researchers warn
Most of the world's nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, researchers warned Monday. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said nuclear powers including the United States and Russia — which account for around 90% of the world's stockpile — had spent time last year "upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions." Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. But SIPRI warned that the trend was likely to be reversed in the coming years. "What we see now, first of all, is that the number of operational nuclear warheads is beginning to increase," SIPRI Director Dan Smith said. This was especially the case with China, which SIPRI said had about 600 nuclear warheads and had added 100 new warheads in 2023 and 2024. "China is increasing its nuclear force steadily," Smith said, adding that the country could reach 1,000 warheads in seven or eight years. While that would still be well short of Russian and U.S. arsenals, it would make China "a much bigger player," said Smith. He said the world faced new threats "at a particularly dangerous and unstable moment" for geopolitics, adding: "We see the warning signs of a new nuclear arms race coming." 'Extensive programs' SIPRI counted a total of 12,241 warheads in January 2025, of which 9,614 were in stockpiles for potential use. The institute noted in its report that both Russia and the United States had "extensive programs under way to modernize and replace their nuclear warheads." The United Kingdom was not believed to have increased its number of warheads in 2024, but SIPRI said that given the country's 2021 decision to raise its limit on the number of warheads from 225 to 260, it was likely to increase in the future. Similarly, while France's arsenal was believed to have remained steady at around 290, "its nuclear modernization program progressed during 2024." India and Pakistan both "continued to develop new types of nuclear weapon delivery systems in 2024." India had a "growing stockpile" of about 180 nuclear weapons at the start of 2025, the institute said, while Pakistan's arsenal remained steady at about 170 warheads. 'Doomsday scenarios' SIPRI also noted that North Korea's nuclear weapons program remained "central to its national security strategy," estimating that it had around 50 warheads and was believed to possess "enough fissile material to reach a total of up to 90 warheads." Israel — which does not acknowledge its nuclear weapons — is also believed to be modernizing its arsenal, which SIPRI estimated was about 90 warheads at the start of the year. Smith stressed that the looming nuclear arms race would not just be about "the numbers of warheads." "It's an arms race which is going to be highly technological," Smith said. He added that it would be both in "outer space and in cyberspace" as the software directing and guiding nuclear weapons would be an area of competition. The rapid development of artificial intelligence will also likely begin to play a part, at first as a complement to humans. "The next step would be moving towards full automation. That is a step that must never be taken," Smith said. "If our prospects of being free of the danger of nuclear war were to be left in the hands of an artificial intelligence, I think that then we would be close to the doomsday scenarios."
The Independent
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Why fierce rivals India, Pakistan and China are racing to woo the Taliban
Afghanistan's Taliban, who were a pariah on the global stage not more than four years ago, are now being courted by three Asian nuclear powers – India, Pakistan and China – all vying to upgrade their diplomatic ties with the former militants. No international government has formally recognised the Taliban administration, though China, India, and the United Arab Emirates are among the nations that have officially accepted its ambassadors in their capital after the militant group took control of Kabul in 2021. The Taliban administration said last year it was in control of 39 Afghan embassies and consulates globally. But the Taliban's isolation, at least in Asia, seems to be coming to an end. Playing the role of big brother to both Kabul and Islamabad, Beijing this week sought to ease the tensions gripping the two countries stoked by terrorism and deportation of refugees. On Wednesday, China's foreign minister Wang Yi said after his talks with Afghanistan's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, the two countries planned to upgrade their diplomatic ties and send ambassadors to each other as soon as possible. A photo of the informal gathering showed Wang Yi holding hands with Dar and Muttaqi. "China welcomes this and is willing to continue providing assistance for the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations," he said. Pakistan expelled more than 8,000 Afghan nationals in April in a fresh repatriation drive after the expiry of a 31 March deadline. Islamabad says the drive is part of a campaign called the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan launched in late 2023. Pakistan has in the past blamed militant attacks and crimes on Afghan citizens, who form the largest portion of migrants in the country. Afghanistan has rejected the accusations. Kabul has termed the repatriation as forced deportation. Wang's comments comes just days after New Delhi, reeling from the Kashmir attack and near-war conflict with Pakistan, made political contact with the Taliban, with external affairs minister S Jaishankar appreciating Muttaqi's condemnation of the 22 April Pahalgam terror strike. India said it attached a 'lot of significance' to the telephonic conversation between Jaishankar and Muttaqi. In January, Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri met with Muttaqi as the two sides discussed expanding bilateral ties, with an increased focus on India's security concerns, boost in trade through the Chabahar Port in Iran, and Indian investments in several development projects inside Afghanistan. The Taliban have banned girls and women from school for more than three years now and are blamed for turning Afghanistan into an 'open-air prison' for its female population due to their gender apartheid policies – one of the biggest reasons the group is isolated and denied formal recognition. Many Western nations, including the US, said the path to any formal recognition of the Taliban will be stuck until they change course on women's rights and re-open high schools and universities to girls and women and allow their full freedom of movement. The Taliban say they respect rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and that restrictions on its banking sector and a lack of recognition are hindering its The Taliban-ruled Afghanistan being wooed by the biggest powers in Asia, is a scenario, experts say, that was unimaginable just last year. India, Pakistan, and China are seen to be looking out for their own interests in the regional race for minerals and guarding against terrorist groups over which the Taliban have influence. Farid Mamundzay, former Afghanistan ambassador to New Delhi till 2023, says the world should note that the competition over Afghanistan is 'not new, but it has become more public, more visible, and increasingly pursued at higher diplomatic levels'. The three countries are focused on their strategic imperatives rather than concerns for rights or governance, he tells The Independent. 'For Pakistan, Afghanistan remains central to its concept of strategic depth, a critical arena for influence and a means to limit Indian influence along its western frontier. China views Afghanistan as vital to securing Xinjiang, expanding the Belt and Road Initiative, establishing overland trade corridors to Central Asia and Iran, and accessing its untapped mineral wealth,' says the ambassador who served New Delhi until the Taliban took control of the mission. 'India, meanwhile, sees continued engagement as essential for countering Chinese and Pakistani influence and maintaining strategic access to continental Asia,' he says, warning that the Taliban risks making war-battered Afghnanistan a pawn and not a partner in the regional race. 'In this unfolding rivalry, Afghanistan risks once again being treated less as a sovereign actor and more as a geopolitical battleground, its internal priorities overshadowed by external power plays,' Mamundzay says. 'For too long, Afghanistan's soil has hosted the rivalries of others. That pattern must end.' As for the Taliban, the former ambassador says the increased attention from three sides boosts its international posture, political leverage and economic gains. But this does not guarantee any safety to Beijing, Delhi, and Islamabad, says Afghanistan's former deputy foreign minister Nasir Ahmad Andisha. 'This engagement, while it might look pragmatic at the moment and allows Delhi to be friends with enemy's enemy, in the long run, this is doomed to fail,' he says. For the time being, the Taliban is enjoying the popularity from the three power centres. 'There is no doubt in this regard that the Islamic Emirate has strengthened its comprehensive relationship with big countries, like China, Russia, Iran, and even India, in accordance with its interests,' Abdul Mateen Qanay, the spokesperson for the Taliban's interior ministry, tells The Independent. He adds that the Taliban's interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and foreign minister Muttaqi have made renewed efforts to repair Afghanistan's ties with Pakistan. On being asked if this is a new chapter for the Taliban, Qanay says: 'Yes, that's exactly right'.
Russia Today
21-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
How Moscow's legendary S-400 missiles helped India outgun Pakistan
As Operation Sindoor, India's response to the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir, has been put on a temporary pause, it is time to reflect on what happened. For the first time since the Battle of Britain, and the Korean War, two near peer air forces were engaged in an air campaign. This was also the first open conflict between two nuclear powers. Both sides had imbibed lessons from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It was clear that aircraft crossing borders would face strong hostile air defenses. Therefore, all strikes had to be undertaken using long-range, stand-off precision weapons, and yet hit targets accurately without much civilian collateral damage. Also the side with better air defense systems would be able to inflict significant damage and deter the adversary from carrying out strikes. Indian Air Force (IAF) strategy, tactics, and therefore inventories, have long been designed for offensive strikes against the Western neighbor with whom India has had three fully-fledged wars and many shorter skirmishes. Pakistan, conscious that it is a smaller economy with a smaller military, built an air force with a stronger defensive posture. In recent decades India has also had to prepare to take on a possible Chinese threat. Notwithstanding the known positions, Indian strikes against both terrorist and military targets all across Pakistan proved very successful. Pakistani defensive systems could not engage or thwart them. There were weapons platforms and armaments belonging to many countries at play, including, the US, Russia, China, France, and Turkey among others. Most analysts have started comparing and analysing the performance of the major weapons systems. This was also of interest to the manufacturers and their host countries. Some of the writing was part of the narrative-building to introduce motivated biases with politico-commercial considerations. The shares of some of these conglomerates saw huge fluctuations on the stock markets on a day-to-day basis. Both sides have claimed to have shot down each other's aircraft on the opening round, but since no aircraft crossed the border, any wreckage would have fallen on home territory and proof could have been concealed, while confirmations take time to come in. Just to recap the sequence of events. During the early hours of May 7, 2025, India launched air strikes on nine terrorist targets in Pakistan using 24 stand-off weapons. Codenamed Operation Sindoor, the strikes were India's response to the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 by Pakistan-backed terrorists, in which 26 civilian tourists, mostly Hindu, were killed. India accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, which Pakistan denied. The missiles struck the camps and infrastructure of militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and no Pakistani military or civilian facilities were targeted. The initial Indian strikes that lasted 23 minutes and were reportedly carried out by Rafale aircraft using SCALP missiles and BrahMos cruise missiles as well as the Indian Army's Indo-Israeli SkyStriker loitering munitions. Photographic evidence of strike success was presented to the Indian and international media. Following these strikes, there were gun duels and enhanced border skirmishes along the Line of Control (LoC). Pakistan also launched massive drone and missile strikes at military and civilian targets under Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos. This included targeting airfields from Kashmir to Gujarat. India negated these strikes with its integrated air defense and counter drone systems. The S-400 missile system, denominated as Sudarshan Chakra, marked its first combat use by India. The country's indigenous Akash AD system played a huge role. Pakistani strikes caused insignificant damage, and very few civilian casualties. Meanwhile, the IAF carried out SEAD/DEAD operations, neutralizing Pakistani air defence systems, including the Chinese HQ-9 in Lahore. On May 10, in response to Pakistani strikes against Indian military targets, the IAF launched major airstrikes across the length and depth of the country, targeting a variety of military targets including airfields, AD systems, weapon and logistic storage sites. The Nur Khan military airfield at Chaklala which is just next to the capital Islamabad, and Pakistan Army's headquarters at Rawalpindi were also hit. Other airfields hit were Sargoda, Rafiqi, Rahim Yar Khan, and radars and storage dumps at Pasrur, Malir, Chunian, Sukkur, Pasrur, and the Sialkot aviation base. India also inflicted extensive damage on air bases at Skardu in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Jacobabad, and Bholari in Pakistan. During its retaliatory strikes on Indian military targets, Pakistan claimed that the BrahMos storage facilities at Beas and Nagrota were destroyed, and that two S-400 systems at Adampur and Bhuj were neutralised. International media acknowledged that all such claims were false. Immediately after the ceasefire, Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Adampur airbase and addressed the personnel with the S-400 launcher forming the background. A similar visit was made by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Bhuj. Sharing some more glimpses from my visit to AFS Adampur. A few systems used by Indian military during the operation received universal praise. These included the S-400 AD System, India's indigenous Akash AD system, the 4D (Drone, Detect, Deter, Destroy) counter-drone system developed by India's key defence agency, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and the BrahMos anti-surface missiles. The French Scalp missile proved extremely accurate and destructive. Let us look at the two Russia-origin systems. The S-400 is a Russian mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system developed in the 1990s by Russia's NPO Almaz as an upgrade to the S-300 family of missiles. The S-400 joined the Russian armed forces in 2007. The system is complemented by its successor, the upcoming S-500. The S-400 system has four radars and four sets of missiles covering different ranges and a vertical bubble. The maximum target detection range is 600 kilometers (around 372 miles) and targets can be engaged as far as 400 kilometres (about 248 miles). The five S-400 batteries contracted by India in 2018 cost $5.43 billion including with reserve missiles. All the sub-units are data-linked and controlled by a central command and control system with sufficient redundancy. The system is capable of layered defense and integrates with other Indian air defenses. One system can control 72 launchers, with a maximum of 384 missiles. All missiles are equipped with directed explosion warheads, which increases the probability of complete destruction of aerial targets. The system is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise, and ballistic missiles, and can also be used against ground targets. It can engage targets at up to 17,000 kilometers per hour (about 10,563 miles/hour) or Mach 14. It can intercept low flying cruise missiles at a range of about 40 kilometers (24 miles) with a line-of-sight requirement. The anti-ballistic missile (ABM) capabilities of the S-400 system are near the maximum allowed under the (now void) Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The number of simultaneously engaged targets by the full system is 36. The system ground mobility speed is close to 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 miles per hour) on roads and 25 kilometers per hour (about 15.5 miles per hours) cross-country. It takes 5 minutes to be operational and fire when ordered while driving. Otherwise, the system response time is just 10 seconds. Time between major overhauls 10,000 hours. The service life is at least 20 years. In Russia the system was made operational around Moscow in 2007. Russia reportedly deployed the S-400 in Syria. The system has been widely used in the on-going conflict in Ukraine, and is thought to have shot-down many aircraft. Meanwhile Ukraine has reportedly used Western weapons, mainly US-made ATACMS missiles, to hit S-400 units on the ground. Belarus has unspecified numbers of S-400 units. Deliveries of six batteries to China began in January 2018. Four batteries consisting of 36 fire units and 192 or more missiles were delivered to Turkey. Algeria is another operator. Other countries, such as Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Serbia, have also shown interest. South Korea is developing the KM-SAM, a medium-range SAM system based on technology from S-400 missiles, with assistance from NPO Almaz. Three of the five contracted batteries have arrived in India, which took deliveries despite an American CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) threat. The remaining two are expected later in 2025 or 2026. The recent conflict with Pakistan has revealed the rough location of two systems in India, one each being in Punjab and Gujarat. As per open sources, the third is somewhere in the east. The systems have been tested in various Indian military exercises. The BrahMos is a long-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from land, submarines, ships, and fighter aircraft. It is a joint venture between DRDO and the Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is based on Russian P-800 Oniks. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. India holds 50.5% share of the joint venture. Around 75% of the missile is manufactured in India and there are plans to increase this to 85%. Large numbers of land-launched, ship-launched as well as air-launched versions have been inducted and are in service of the Indian armed forces. In 2016, after India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime. India and Russia gradually increased the range of the missile to 800 kilometers (497 miles). The latest deliveries to the Indian Navy are of this type. The cruise missile has anti-ship, land-attack roles, and has been in service since June 2007. The other operator is the Philippine Marine Corps. The unit cost is around $3.5 million. The extended range variant costs around $4.85 million. Many futuristic variants are evolving. Smaller sized variants like BrahMos-NG could be carried on more types of aircraft even on LCA. This solid propellant missile can carry a 200–300 kilogram warhead that could be nuclear or conventional semi-armour-piercing. Maximum operational ranges are up to 900 kilometers (560 miles). Export variants are currently restricted to 290 kilometers (180 miles). Currently missile speed is Mach 3. Later variants will be hypersonic (M 5+). The missile is very accurate with a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of less than one meter. BrahMos is India's fastest cruise missile. BrahMos was first test-fired on June 12, 2001 from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) Chandipur in a vertical launch configuration. The September 2010 test of BrahMos created a world record for being the first cruise missile to be tested at supersonic speeds in a steep-dive mode. BrahMos was tested with an Indian seeker for the first time in March 2018, and was tested with an India-developed propulsion system, airframe and power supply in September 2019. On September 30, 2020, India successfully test-fired an extended range BrahMos, offering a range of around 350 kilometers (217 miles), at speeds up to Mach 2.8. The submarine-launched variant of BrahMos was test fired successfully for the first time from a submerged pontoon on March 20, 2013. The BrahMos-A is a modified air-launched variant of the missile with a reduced size and weight (2.55 tons). It has a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles) when launched from Su-30 MKI, and it can carry only one BrahMos missile. 50 IAF SU-30MKI jets were modified to carry the BrahMos-A missile. Even BrahMos Block III land-attack variants are operational. There are plans to have 1500 kilometer (932 mile)-plus range missiles. The more advanced version, BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) is being developed and will be ready by end 2025. BrahMos-II will be a hypersonic cruise missile. An Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) variant is also being planned. BrahMos is operationally deployed in large numbers by the three services. Additional missile orders have been recently placed for extended range variants. The Philippines has placed a substantial order for their services and deliveries began in 2024. Russia, too, has plans to buy missiles. Brazil has shown interest in the system. Vietnam and Indonesia have already signed deals. Resolute political will, target choices, weapons matching and accuracy, actionable intelligence, strong Indian air defense, IAF professionalism and strategic targeting accuracy were the clear clinchers in Operation Sindoor. India-Russia relations are time-tested. Russian platforms and weapons with Indian armed forces have performed exceedingly well for many decades. The S-400 and Su-30MKI-BrahMos combination have excelled in Operation Sindoor. Could the S-500 with its 600 kilometer (372 mile) range be the next acquisition? Will India select the Su-57 fifth-generation aircraft and 'Make-in-India'? Can Russia help accelerate the Indian nuclear submarine program? Should India acquire the 'AWACS Killer' Russian R-37M AAM and the two then work on futuristic long-range aerial missiles? Should there be more work together on a Su-30MKI upgrade? Can the two enter into a joint-venture for Kamikaze drones required by both sides in large numbers, and India can help scale up production. Clearly the sky is no longer the limit.
CBC
15-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
What growing up Pakistani taught me about India and how those feelings changed in Canada
Social Sharing This is a First Person column by Zahra Khozema, a Pakistani Canadian journalist who lives in Toronto. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ. I was nine, standing in the dusty courtyard of my school in Karachi, Pakistan, yelling death to India, along with my other classmates. "India murdabad, India murdabad." (Death to India, Death to India.) It was a chant I didn't fully understand, but I did it anyway because it earned nods from teachers and cheers from classmates. Nationalism like this always would typically peak in Pakistan during cricket matches with our neighbour or when a new Bollywood movie, yet again, portrayed Muslims and Pakistanis as a bloodthirsty villain who want to steal the honour of a Hindi queen or detonate bombs to harm civilian life in India. It also surges in times like now, when political tensions are high and the possibility of another full-out war looms overhead. A deadly militant attack in Kashmir, in which 24 Hindu tourists, one Christian tourist and a guide were executed, sparked this particular conflict. Pakistan denies India's claims that it was behind the attack, and the militaries of the two countries were engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades. War is always devastating, but what makes hostility in this region worse is that India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers. Despite a fragile ceasefire, tensions remain high. My phone keeps buzzing. Non-South Asian friends are "checking in" and asking if my family back home is safe as disinformation is propagated and debunk ed. Some forward memes mocking the situation. The comment sections of these posts reek with racist remarks like "the smelliest war" when anti-South Asian sentiment in Canada is already on the rise. Others want my "thoughts," as if I'm the designated spokesperson for Pakistanis. India-Pakistan ceasefire expected to be fragile in early days: Eurasia security expert 4 days ago Duration 9:36 The ceasefire between India and Pakistan — two nuclear-armed powers that looked increasingly willing to engage in an all-out war — appeared to be holding into Sunday. Kamran Bokhari, former senior director of the Eurasian security and prosperity portfolio at the New Lines Institute, says ceasefire violations are 'to be expected' in the early hours or days before it becomes a formal truce 'but we aren't yet there.' Read more: What do you say when it feels like so many people are waiting for you to spew hate? I can't do that. After my family immigrated from Pakistan to Toronto in 2005, some of the people who made me feel most welcome were Indian. I didn't speak English then, so my teacher paired me with a classmate who could translate — a Kashmiri Indian girl who spoke Punjabi. I spoke Urdu, not Punjabi, but it was close enough. That girl — my first encounter with someone who I thought was an "enemy" — was 10 and wore pigtails. She sat with me when no one wanted to associate with the new kid who went to English as a second language (ESL) class. We didn't talk much because of the language barrier, but I'll always remember her as my first friend in Canada. By the time I'd gained the confidence to thank her in English, I had moved schools. Soon enough, the idea that Indians hated us, or that Hindus hated Muslims, had already started to unravel in the face of lived experience. I spent the rest of my elementary school years dancing to Bollywood bangers at talent shows and trading my samosa lunches for khaman dhoklas with Gujarati friends. The lines that once felt so rigid back home had begun to blur here. BBC Asia Network's Haroon Rashid said it best: "In the world of the West … we were all one. We were often seen with the same lens, abused by the same words, treated, in some cases, with the same sense of otherness." As South Asian immigrants, we are "united by food and fashion and films and music and culture and language and upbringing," he added. But I started to see past the propaganda when, at age 16, I became one of the lucky few Pakistanis granted a visa to visit India. The animosity between the two countries rarely allows for cross-border travel, so on this visit, my mom insisted we go to Siddhpur, a small town in Gujarat. It's where our family lived for generations before Partition in 1947 — the violent and chaotic division of British India into two separate countries that triggered mass migration and ongoing conflict. My grandparents were all born on the "other side" of the border and we still have some distant relatives who live in India. My mother's eyes lit up as we drove past our once-ancestral home — the one her mom had described in stories — on a street lined with the city's iconic colourful bungalows. It seemed so familiar to her, even though it had been three decades since her last visit. I, however, felt conflicted. It felt disloyal to the country I was born in, and I didn't appreciate that my mom was trying to connect me to the one her mother had left behind. We also visited the graveyard where my great-grandmother was buried, but we couldn't find her because the tombstones were etched in Gujarati, a script we couldn't read. We were too nervous to ask for help. I was told you don't admit you're Pakistani there – it's just not done. But we still felt strangely at home since we spoke the language and blended in. That's why I can't give in to this forced binary of choosing sides. I love my country and have opinions. I see the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, the erasure of Islamic heritage and the brutal crackdown on Kashmiris. I see it and I grieve it deeply, just as I grieve the growing religious extremism in Pakistan, the growing censorship and the crackdown on political deviation that mirrors the very forces we claim to oppose. In trying to defeat each other, we've become a bitter symmetry. And I'm not the only one feeling this way. While political tensions and cricket rivalries often dominate headlines, many Pakistanis do not harbour animosity toward Indians. The hostility seen online is often amplified by echo chambers and doesn't always reflect the nuanced perspectives of everyday people. Years later, I crossed paths with that same Kashmiri Indian girl from elementary school. We worked together at a fast-food joint in high school and often bumped into each other on our university campus. A few years ago, she invited me to her wedding. It was my first time witnessing a Hindu ceremony that wasn't on a TV screen. Indian soap operas had made them seem so dramatic with intense camera zoom-ins and excessive crying. But in reality, it was quiet and intimate — just a boy and a girl sitting with a priest, surrounded by loved ones. That friend and I keep weaving in and out of each other's lives, gently dismantling the narratives we grew up with. And in those ordinary moments of seated silence, post-work vent sessions and shared celebrations, I'm reminded how much more there is that connects us than divides us.
